Gang-rape survivor Noelia Castillo issued a heartbreaking final statement to her family — before asking them to leave the hospital room before she died of euthanasia in Spain Thursday.
“I want to go now in peace and stop suffering,” she said, according to Spanish outlet Antenna 3.
Her family, who had tried to get the 25-year-old to change her mind up until the last moment, were with her 30 minutes before she died from lethal injection, the outlet reported.
She asked her family to leave the room before a doctor administered three injections and a sedative in a 15-minute procedure.
In her final interview, Castillo said she didn’t want her family in the room as she took her final breaths.
“I don’t want them to see me closing my eyes,” she said.
Castillo said she suffered from pain from being paralyzed from the waist down in a suicide attempt in 2022. She divulged in an interview that she had suffered years of sexual assault, including a gang rape.
Castillo’s death by choice was delayed for years after her father waged a lengthy legal battle against her decision — enlisting the help of Abogados Cristianos (Christian Lawyers). She was initially approved for euthanasia in 2024 after the right to die was legalized in Spain in 2021 but had to endure rulings from five different courts.
“Why does he want me alive, just to keep me in a hospital?” Castillo said Wednesday in an interview with Antena 3. “Not all parents are prepared for this. He keeps telling me he understands me, but he doesn’t.”
Her mother and sister also opposed her decision.
Noelia’s mother, Yolanda, said in an interview that she was devastated by her daughter’s decision, but wanted to be there when the procedure happened.
“I’ve been praying and thinking… hoping that at the last moment she’ll say ‘I regret it’,” she said.
Critics, including Catholic bishops, have said her euthanasia meant that society failed her, according to EuroNews.
The bishops of the Subcommission for the Family and the Defence of Life said her death reflected “an accumulation of personal suffering and institutional shortcomings that calls the whole of society into question.”
Christian Lawyers agreed.
“If deliberately caused death is the solution to problems, then anything goes,” the group said.
Supporters of the group had gathered outside the Barcelona hospital, with some leaving flowers at the entrance.
Campaigners had held onto hope “until the very last moment” that she would change her mind, the group’s president, José María Fernández, told reporters.
Noelia’s case is “a failure of the healthcare system,” he added.
Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference added: “A doctor cannot act as the executioner for a death sentence, however legal, empowering or compassionate it may appear.”
